Look in any magazine promoting the latest diet, and you are sure to
find an advertisement with a before and after picture. Even as a
young girl, I was always a little skeptical of the pictures being of the same
person. Joanne Ikeda, Co-Director of the Center for Weight and Health at the
University of California at Berkeley, recently showed me a before and after diet
advertisement where the person changed not only hair color, height, weight, and
facial features, but race as well.

Mary Kay Wardlaw, education specialist for WIN the Rockies, found an
advertisement with the famous before and after pictures from over 100 years ago.
My, how times have changed!

Quotes from the advertisement for a weight gain product of 1891 include the
following.

* Dont look like the poor unfortunate on the left who tries to cover her
poor thin body. (Notice how thin was associated with poor.)

* Dont suffer from the tortures of inferior devices that artificially
fatten with inflationary devices and pads. (Imagine - the goal was to have
female body look larger. It still seems unfortunate to me the female body
never seems to be socially acceptable without changes.)

* "In just 4 weeks I gained 39 pounds, a new womanly figure, and much
needed fleshiness." (Forget the saying Im not fat, Im fluffy
 how about Im not fat, Im fleshy!)